Pull-Tab Awareness Week (Spread the word, guys!)

This is a very important public service announcement regarding the shipment of baseball cards.

It's one of the biggest plights for the sportscard collecting enthusiast of today:

Scotch tape.

Specifically, irresponsible usage of tape to protect cards.

Don't get me wrong, tape is a must-have item for anyone who ever ships cards. A piece of tape over the opening of a top loader prevents the card from slipping out and potentially being damaged in shipment. A few cards secured between a couple pieces of protective cardboard by some tape is also a good way to keep them safe from the rigors of interstate travel.

But too often, the person mailing the cards doesn't take a moment to think about the recipient. If you're reading this, I'm sure you've been in the frustrating situation many times: spending what seems like several minutes chipping away at a piece of tape with your fingernail, trying to free your newly obtained card(s). Such a pain! You could also use a knife or scissors-half to cut the tape, but you run the risk of cutting in too far, potentially damaging the cards, and either way, if it's a top loader, now you've got a trashy-looking top loader with a cut-up piece of tape on it.. time to get your fingernails involved again. Depending on the tape, it could take just a moment, or it could be on there so badly (chipping off in tiny brittle bits, or not coming off at all), that the card holder is essentially ruined. Even in the best-case scenario, some Goo Gone is usually needed to remove the sticky tape residue.

This disheartening scene could easily be avoided!

All the sender needs to do is spend 2 seconds to fold over a tiny piece of tape, creating a handy pull-tab. This pull-tab makes it super easy for the recipient to grab hold of the tape and peel it off in one efficient motion. No dangerous blades or fingernail frustration needed!

CREATING A PULL-TAB

Step 1: Apply tape to one side.

Step 2: At the end of the remaining tape, fold over a piece about a centimeter long, with the sticky part being stuck against itself, creating a non-sticky pull-tab roughly the shape of a square.

Step 3: Apply the remaining tape to the other side.

Tips:

• You can also double up on the pull-tabs to make opening cards later even easier. Just follow the above process for each side of the tape you apply.
• It's also nice to write "pull" on either the tab itself or on the protective cardboard with an arrow pointing to the tab. This is helpful for individuals who might not immediately recognize the tab you've thoughtfully created for them.

Warnings:

• Don't make the tab so big that there's not enough sticky part of the tape left to get a secure seal. You want at least a half-inch of sticky part remaining to ensure that the tape holds during transit. If you've got limited tape length to work with, it's better to have a "too small" pull-tab, than "too big". Even if it's too small, at least the recipient can have a good start for his fingernails.
• If you write "pull" to identify the tab, be sure to write gently. Writing too hard could damage the card.

USING A PULL-TAB

Step 1: Pull tab.

Step 2: There is no step 2; you're done, bro! Throw away the tape that easily came off, and enjoy your new card(s)!


It's just that easy! How has this not caught on? I only really re-delved back into card collecting like a year and a half ago, after collecting as a kid, pre-internet. I've been amazed at the lack of convenient pull-tabs. I've gotten over a hundred shipments of cards from dudes on eBay, Listia, or other online trades & sales, and only maybe 5% of them had pull-tabs. Why?! It's so easy to do and so handy for the person getting the cards!


YOU CAN HELP

Please, everyone, spread the word. Mention Pull-Tab Awareness Week on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, and to your trade buddies, frequented sellers, whatever! Let's get everyone on the pull-tab bandwagon and make all our lives just a bit better.

Even if it's not a big deal to you personally and you don't mind fighting with stubborn pieces of tape around your cards, chances are it bugs somebody you trade with. Be kind, make pull-tabs!

My tiny blog hasn't been around very long, so I need help from you guys, my modest readership, to disseminate this message. However, please note this is not a stunt to drive traffic to my blog. If/when you make a stand and share this information and/or pictures, I don't need a link back or to be given any credit or anything. Copy & Paste freely with no stings attached. I'm just trying to do my part to spread pull-tab awareness across the globe. It's very important to me and hopefully important to you, too. I'll make a follow-up post soon thanking and linking to anybody who helps spread the word, so please give me a heads-up if/when you do, if you want to be included in that.

Yes, it's a "first world problem", but such a senseless thing that shouldn't even be an issue. Let's eradicate this and move forward as a species. It'll save people a lot of time.. and time is money.. money that could be used for feeding the homeless or medical treatment for children. Remember, the week after "shark week" is "pull-tab awareness week" from now on.

Here are some copy-and-paste-ready text and pictures for you to use (feel free to create your own, too, of course):

It's Pull-Tab Awareness Week! When you use tape around baseball cards, fold a piece near the end as a handy pull-tab! Please share/RT! 

Be Cool, be Fab, make a Pull-Tab! Fold over the end of the tape when packaging your sportscards for shipping.

We're here. We want pull-tabs. Get used to it. #pulltabweek

What do we want? Pull Tabs! When do we want it? When people send us cards!

Hey everybody, please make handy pull tabs by folding the tape ends when taping up cards to ship. Thanks! #pulltabweek

There you go. Tweet it, put it on Facebook, let everybody know. Please. Fight the good fight! And remember, it all starts with you. Pull tabs: it's the right thing to do.

Mystery Binder from Listia (pt 4)

Here we are with the thrilling conclusion to the binder containing 200+ cards I got cheap from a local Listian over the weekend. First, we got a nice Pablo Sandoval card. Then, a shred of a CC Sabathia jersey. After that, a guy named like my name.

Now we come to the final few pages. Let's take a look, won't we?

Page 19
Round Up: Lots of Donruss. Fun Fact: Did you know that Gary Redus and Gary Pettis were different guys? I always assumed they were the same player. I stand corrected. They are 2 different men named Gary.
Winner: David Murphy rookie? He's had some good years.
Loser: Chip Hale rookie? He never had any good years. Nah, he did ok in '93 (.333 in 69 games).

Page 20
Round Up: Hey, 3 HOFers and a couple also-very-good's.
Winner: That's a nice looking Kirby.
Loser: Tim Layana. 1991 Score never did much for me.

Page 21
Round Up: I think the '07 Topps Phil Nevin is the only duplicate of the binder (also popped up in Part 3).
Winner: Hell, let's give it to Kirby twice in a row. I love Paul Molitor, but that looks more like a photo of your uncle in a Boy Scouts outfit.
Loser: Pat Clements.. no love for '89 Topps. None.

Page 22
Round Up: Here are 9 more baseball cards. Yep, there they are.
Winner: 3-way tie: Carpenter, Konerko, Buehrle. If I was more stat-minded, I'd look up which of these guys has the most career WAR+ or whatever to find out which is the best player on paper and then crown him the winner of the page.
Loser: Sorry, '89 Ed Whitson, but you've got a crease, dropping your value from 1 cent down to 0.1 cent.

Page 23
Round Up: I'm not gonna run the exact numbers, but I can confidently say that the most populous set of the binder is 2007 Topps. I guess it's a fine set. The black border is cool. The firework pixels in the corners are kinda weird, but ok.
Winner: Chipper Jones cracking a smile in the batter's box.
Loser: That Lance McCullers is a seriously damaged piece of cardboard. Time to be flicked into the recycle bin.

Page 24
Round Up: Last page. Yet more '07 Topps to close it out. Shawn Riggans there in the middle seriously looks like a Little League photo.. maybe JV high school.
Winner: Geez, it's a weak field. I guess I'll go with Mark Loretta, as I remember him fondly for his days as a Padre.
Loser: Scioscia has seen better days.

Well, there ya have it. Not really any "hits" here in the last quarter of the binder. I guess the David Murphy RC is the top card of these few pages.. his average is down this year, but he seems to be a decent player. (UPDATE: Upon taking the David Murphy out of the page, the tragic sight of a very damaged back was revealed. Dang. trash)

To wrap up the binder.. I'd definitely get it again, were I thrown back through time to the moment before I bid on it. Some decent cards in it. And my collection is pretty light on cards from the past 20 years, so it was cool to get some relatively-recent stuff. But lots of junk wax I don't have any use for, really. And many of the cards are in rough condition. Probably wouldn't be worth the postage cost to ship it all, including the binder itself and all the junk. But yeah, for just 75 Listia credits and a drive a few zip codes over, it was worth it.

Oh, and I guess there's also the binder itself. It's a nice binder. Puffy front cover. D-ring. Quality craftsmanship. But honestly, I'm not really a "binder guy." I prefer penny sleeves and top loaders. I like to hold a card in my hands and flip it over and then back again. Plus I get frustrated trying to organize my cards in multiples of 9.

Again, if you need any of these cards, I'm probably up for a trade, so let me know. As always, thanks for reading and taking this adventure with me!

Mystery Binder from Listia (pt 3)

To catch up anyone who hasn't been reading this week, I (locally) picked up a cheap binder with 200+ cards off Listia this past weekend. I've been breaking it into quarters to go through it and find out what it's got. Part 1 featured a Pablo Sandoval 1st Bowman Chrome Card. The highlight of Part 2 was a CC Sabathia relic from 2005. Now it's on to Part 3:

Page 13
Round Up: This page is dominated by '07 Topps. That's an oddly poor picture of Mike Scioscia that Topps chose for this card.
Winner: I like the Nevin and Barfield since I remember them from their Padres days.
Loser: The Joe Hesketh is pretty creased up.

Page 14
Round Up: 2007 Topps continues its recent dominance of the binder. Nice early cards of Cole Hamels and Justin Verlander.
Winner: I like Frank Thomas, but the Blue Jays uniform is weird on him (plus I think it's photoshopped on him, so it looks even weirder).
Loser: None! They're all winners! Yippee!!

Page 15
Round Up: 2007 Topps is loosening its grip on the binder, but slowly.
Winner: I guess I like the early Carlos Quentin card, since he's currently one of the least-bad Padres and this is the first card I've gotten of him.
Loser: The Rick Aguilera card is not only a so-so airbrushing job, but this particular one is also pretty creased.

Page 16
Round Up: More 2007 Topps n' friends.
Winner: Gavin Floyd.. probably the all-time most successful baseball player that shares my first name (just a .500 pitcher, so I guess that's not saying much). But yeah, cool to have his rookie card (Maybe it's his rookie card? Who can tell these days.)
Loser: I love Chris Young, but looking at this picture, I just want to punch him (and then run away very fast).

Page 17
Round Up: If you like oil paintings of baseball players, this is the page for you, with 3 Diamond Kings. Unfortunately for me, I don't.
Winner: Will Clark was pretty hot back in 1990. I remember that year, in middle school, I briefly had a '87 Fleer Will Clark rookie and promptly traded it away for a few vintage cards including a couple old Reggie's. People thought I was crazy, but I think time has vindicated me.
Loser: Buckner. Always Buckner. Every time.

Page 18
Round Up: Part 3 ends with a whimper; Not much notable here.
Winner: Gotta give it to the Ryan DK
Loser: Don't make me choooose!

So there you have Part 3 of the mystery binder. What do you think was the best card? Nothing really jumping out at me from these few pages. I guess I'm most happy to get the Gavin Floyd, my namesake. (btw, "Gavin Floyd" is also the name of an alter-ego of mine that comes out when I listen to Dark Side of the Moon on headphones.)

Oh, mystery binder! What other secrets do you hold in store?? Stay tuned for the 4th and final exciting chapter-- coming your way shortly.

Mystery Binder from Listia (pt 2)

The other day, I talked about a local pick-up of a binder of baseball cards I got off Listia for a pocketful of credits and a Sunday drive cross town.

I'm in the middle of going through the binder and finding out what-all's in there (in "real time" along with you, the reader!! lol). The highlight so far has been a Pablo Sandoval "1st Bowman Chrome Card". Let's see if anything can top it.

Here's part 2 of our 4-part saga.

Page 7
Round Up: Some '07 Heritage and junk on the bottom.
Winner: I guess the Ortiz AS.
Loser: Hard to not beat a Diamond King; sorry Ruben.

Page 8
Round Up: Here's a random lot, somewhat heavy on '90 Donruss.
Winner: I'll go with the horizontal Mattingly, even with a crease.
Loser: The Easley is pretty damaged.. will probably trash it.

Page 9
Round Up: Lots of '07 Topps. Nothing too interesting here. A random hockey card; too bad it's a bit warped.
Winner: none of the above
Loser: all of the above

Page 10
Round Up: Cool, a couple Marcus Giles cards.. I went to school with the guy, so kinda collect his cards.
Winner: I'll say the Fleer Giles.. I think I needed that one. His '07 Topps card there is great, though.
Loser: Tie between the two '89 Topps.

Page 11
Round Up: We might have a new champion for "best card of the binder" in the form of that CC Sabathia jersey relic. The Nolan Ryan card is kinda cool, but the corners are beat up.
Winner: CC with the tiny piece of fabric that was allegedly part of a garment he wore once.
Loser: The Clemens caricature is kinda creepy. Ironically, by the end of his career, that's an accurate representation of his head size. Zing!

Page 12
Round Up: More '07 Topps among others.
Winner: I like/semi-collect Frank Thomas and Carlos Delgado, and have never seen these cards before, so I'm happy to have 'em.
Loser: The '91 John Smiley has some pretty rough corners, squeaking by the '89 Topps card for worst of the page.


Well, that's it for Part 2. Some good stuff, some garbage. The CC relic is obviously the top card of these few pages. Any other good cards here I didn't give proper love to?

Check back soon for the next installment and we'll see what else is in there. Again, most of this stuff is available for trades, so let me know if you wanna work out a deal for anything.

Mystery Binder from Listia (pt 1)

Late Saturday night I was taking a quick peruse of Listia, and a recommend auction on the right sidebar caught my eye: "baseball cards with binder". It was ending soon and had an opening bid of just 75 credits (which in dollar terms is like less than a quarter; hardly anything). The catch was it was Local Pick-Up Only. But in a "small world" circumstance, the location was my home of Portland, OR. So I bid, and ended up the only bidder, winning it for the 75 credits.

The guy was new to Listia and didn't have any feedback yet. I knew it was a risk, since newbies often flake out, but Listia is good about refunding credits in such situations (and again, it was only 75 credits), so I figured it was worth the risk. (I've been burned on Listia a few times before but always got my credits refunded eventually, and once I got a Rickey Henderson rookie off a newbie for 2000 credits; so yeah, it pays to take a chance.) The guy didn't type out any cards, just a couple pics of the binder's outside, and one shot of it open (not quite clear enough to identify the cards, but enough to tell junk wax and later.) He claimed to have spent about $50 on collecting it, but was giving it up.

After my recent great experience doing an eBay local pickup, I figured a Listia pickup would be cool too. And guess what?,,,, yeah, it was fine (though no free hot sauce this time, sorry to say). And I had to drive out almost 7 miles to the place he wanted to meet up, but that wasn't too bad for a hot Sunday afternoon without really anything else going on. He got there just moments before I did, so I didn't have to wait around at all. He was a kid, literally like middle school age, but seemed nice enough. His age takes some wind out of my "I got a great deal!" sails, because nobody wants to rip off a decent kid, but I doubt there's anything really valuable here, so no need for me to be guilt-ridden over it at all.

So anyways, let's break into this binder and see if there's anything cool in here!

Page 1
Round up: The only guy I've heard of here is Jeff Ballard (yeah, I love baseball cards, but haven't followed baseball very closely for the past few years; I'm more into the "good ol' days"). Well, I think I've heard of Jason Marquis, too. Wow, that Eric Hurley card is thick! Probably the thickest non-relic card I own. Too bad he hasn't done much in the majors. Boof Bonser is a great name! But again, too bad he's not a very notable player.
Winner: Points for girth: Eric Hurley. Runner-up: Da' Boof.
Loser: Sorry, Mr. Ballard, '88 Donruss is always a loser unless maybe it's Roberto Alomar.

Page 2
Round up: Hey, I've actually heard of most of these guys! Josh Johnson and Jon Lester rookies? Nice.
Winner: Great looking Ian Kinsler card.
Loser: Pierzynski. Sorry, looks kinda like a douche.

Page 3
Round up: Not much here. An Eck, but '88 Donruss again. Oh hey, hiding behind that Chase Fontaine in the middle was a gold parallel (another of those super thick ones) of the same card. Cool.
Winner: Chin-lung Hu.. nice looking card.
Loser: Jeff Brantley just edges out the 2 Donruss cards.

Page 4
Round up: An '07 Upper Deck lot. Not one of my favorite sets (the sides make it feel like each card is being squeezed in a vice).
Winner: Moises Alou.. a player I always kinda liked.
Loser: Derrick Turnbow.. why you got dat hat down so far, bro?

Page 5
Round up: Just a partially-full page here, but a good one. That's reigning WS MVP Pablo Sandoval in the middle there.. RC, cool (At least, I think so.. "1st Bowman Card" = "Rookie Card", right?). Also a Russell Martin RC (but not "1st Bowman Card"?? So complicated!).. he was good for a while. I remember hating him for getting lots of key hits against the Padres whilst he was a Dodger.
Winner: Kung Fu Panda
Loser: Gaetti DK

Page 6
Round up: Some junk and 3 team cards from 2007.
Winner: Hmm.. the '07 Cardinals were the reigning WS Champs, so I'll give it to them.
Loser: Creased Mike Davis has a date with the trash can. Sorry, Mr. Davis.

Ok, we're just a quarter-way through the binder, but I think that's enough for today's post. Check back soon for the continuation to see what other mysteries will be revealed.

What do you think of the lot so far? Any hidden treasures that I should screw down in a hard case ASAP? Not gonna blow anybody away, but I think it was worth the tiny few Listia credits and the time/gas to pick it up, with the Pablo Sandoval RC being the top card so far. I should mention pretty much all of these cards are open for trades, so if anything is catching your eye, check out my wants.

The Best Serial Numbers!

Serial numbered cards have been a thing for a while now. Collectors typically don't care much about what number they get, but are more concerned by the total number produced. But some of us nuts actually think about the numbers and consider some better than others. What are the best numbered cards to own? Let's break it down:

Number One
1/500 (or whatever) is always neat. You're #1! The very first one! The original! Just be careful it's not one of those "1 out of 500" (and all 500 say that), which means nothing.. Worthless.
Also along these lines, single-digit numbers of a big run can be kinda cool, like 2/150,000 or 8/2000.

The Player's Jersey Number
If you get a Mickey Mantle serial numbered 7/250, Jackie Robinson 42/1000, or a Michael Jordan 23/1500 or something like that, that's pretty cool. It might tick the card's value up a notch in certain circles.

Special Stat
A Hank Aaron serial number card of 714/x or 755/x.. that's pretty freckin' cool. Or maybe a Pete Rose #'d 44 or 4256, or a Ted Williams #'d 406, Roger Maris #'d 61, or some other special stat/player combo like that.

Special Date

I've got that above Steve Garvey numbered 84 which I think is cool since 1984 was the year he was the NLCS MVP for my Padres and that's even mentioned on the card. Similarly, a Kirk Gibson #'d 88 would be sweet.. or Joe Carter #'d 1993/3000 or something along those lines. It's especially cool if the "total number" matches up too, or factors into it somehow, like a 19/67 Yaz, 19/77 Reggie, etc.

The "Christmas Card" and Other Holidays
A subset of special date serial numbers, any card numbered 12/25 is The Christmas Card, which is incredibly rare and ultra-mega-valuable to anyone with any trace of Christmas Spirit. (This additional value is gained each December, and gone again by the following January.)
I suppose there could theoretically also be a "Halloween Card" (10/31), but I don't think there are many serial numbered cards with a run of 31, which would seem to be a strange number to produce. Similarly, the "Love Card" (2/14) doesn't exist very often.
This doesn't work for all holidays, obviously. For instance, an "America! Card" (7/4) is impossible due to the laws of physics. Such a card exists only in the minds of our top theoretical scientists and philosophers.

Your Birthday
Ok, this might not be a big deal to anyone but you, but if you were born on November 30th, and you got a card of your favorite player serial numbered 11/30.. that would be cool as hell. Or if you were born in March of 1975 and got a card #'d 3/75 or 0003/1975.. something like that. Other dates that might mean something to you could be your anniversary or child's birthday.

If your birthday is October 29th, and Cliff Floyd is your favorite player for some reason, then you might be jealous of this card.

Your Lucky Number
Another one that might be neat for you, but probably nobody else. Oh, I don't know.. if your lucky number is 72 and you got a card #'d 72, I could see how that'd be cool for you. And of course, it always stings a little when you pull a numbered card that's just barely off.. say, if you got a card #'d 73 when your lucky number is 72 and you curse the Gods for their cruel fates they befall upon you. You scour the globe trying to find the person who owns #72 so you can offer to trade them for your #73.

Big, Round Numbers
Like 1000/150,000 or 300/499. A lot of proud zeroes. Hero numbers.

A Bunch of the Same Number
222/2000.. that's a lot of 2's! 101/1100.. binary! 9/99, etc.

The Middle
We're looking at something like 250/500 or 50/100. There's something satisfying about getting the middle card of a numbered run. So snug and safe between the other cards.

The Final Card!
The last card of any limited serial number run is pretty sweet. 50/50 or 5000/5000.. neat to have in your collection. The end-all, be-all. They broke the mold after that guy you've got there in your hands.

The Worst Card?
Well, of course the worst numbered card to own is unlucky #13. Anyone owning a serial #'d card 13 is cursed to a life of constant tragedy and misfortune, only ceased by the peace of the grave*. If you have any serial #'d 13 cards, get rid of them right now! Even while I was in the middle of writing this, I took a break and walked my dog and she nearly almost got hit by a car-- not making this up!-- so let that be a lesson to you. (*note that this only applies to triskaidekaphobics.)
For you God-fearing folks out there, another serial number to avoid is 666, or 6/66, or even 1666/2000. A card such as this has essentially been touched by the hand of the devil. Owning one may make you susceptible to demonic influence. But the good news is you can trade it to a heavy metal fan and get a great deal in exchange, since hard-rocker types value evil cards quite highly.

Oh, fun with numbers!

Do you have any particular serial numbered card that you like for some numerological reason? Please post in the comments to let us know.

nice Dodgers 1988 WS display piece

There was this shadow box that showed up on eBay not long ago commemorating Kirk Gibson's dramatic home run in the 1988 World Series. What caught my eye was the inclusion of a Kirk Gibson 2004 Topps Retired Signature Edition certified autograph. Anyone who's been reading this blog for a while knows that I'm bonkers over this set, and my current foolish obsession collecting goal is to obtain all 76 autographs in the set. And I needed that Gibby. Also included were an Eckersley auto from the same set (I already got that one) and a commemorative postcard signed by Gibson.

I just recently started using an eBay sniping site (head nod to the site Gixen and user Junichi for letting me know about it in a previous comment).. very handy and less stress than trying to be around to place a "live" bid near an auction's end. So I entered a sniping bid basically just a bit over what I had recently paid for just the Eckersley card alone. I ended up with the winning bid (just 3 cents under my max bid) and got it. Cool.

This is a neat display, but again, I really just wanted it to scrap out the Gibson card (which I don't think I've seen for sale elsewhere yet). But I liked the concept of this display. Some things about it I wasn't crazy about, though. The Gibson card features him in a Tigers uniform, so it doesn't really fit the theme. Plus, since the postcard thing-- ("Gateway cachet" is apparently the medical term for this particular type of memorabilia item.. and it's not actually a postcard, but an empty envelope)-- is also signed by him, it seems a bit redundant to have 2 autographs by the same guy in one display.

So I looked around for a nice-looking Gibson card I could swap in. I found just the ticket in a 2005 eTopps card. It commemorated the home run in question, and featured a photo from that famous trot. Plus it was in one of those encased "uncirculated" cases, so it fit the feel of the display (and matched the encased Eck). And it was a refractor, so it was all purdy n' shiny. According to the seller, only 714 were made and most are kept in online portfolios (I think this is my first eTopps card.. I still don't totally get the concept).

So I got the card and swapped it in there. Pretty pleased with how it turned out.

While I'm not a huge Dodger fan, as a baseball fan, I definitely have a reverence for that magic moment. So I'll proudly prop this puppy on my wall for the time being and admire it when it catches my eye. While I'm not anxious to part with it, I'll let it be known to y'all that I'm open to trade offers. I'm specifically looking for "upper tier" guys I still need from the 2004 Topps Retired autos.

Here's the original details from the seller:

THIS ONE FEATURES:
A GATEWAY CASHET ENVELOPE CELEBRATING THE 1988 WORLD SERIES HOME RUN BY KIRK GIBSON IN GAME 1. 
THE ENVELOPE HAD BEEN PLACED IN AN ACRYLIC SCREW DOWN HOLDER. 
IT FEATURES A SILK INSERT SHOWCASING DODGER STADIUM AND THE OAKLAND COLISEUM. 
IT IS POSTMARKED OCTOBER 15, 1988 THE DAY THE FAMOUS HOMERUN WAS HIT. 
THE NEXT 2 CARDS ARE A 2004 TOPPS CHROME CERTIFIED AUTOGRAPH BLACK CHROME REFRACTOR. (ed. note: the cards aren't really refractors, as I could tell from the photos.)
EACH OF THESE CARDS HAS A SEAL FROM TOPPS AND ARE WHAT ARE CALLED ENCASED.
IF THE SEAL IS BROKEN, IT VOIDS THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE AUTOGRAPH. BOTH SEALS ARE INTACT.
THERE IS ONE AUTOGRAPHED BY KIRK GIBSON AND THE OTHER AUTOGRAPHED BY DENNIS ECKERSLEY.
EACH OF THESE CARDS HAS A TOPPS HOLOGRAM STICKER ON THE BACK OF THE CARD.
I MADE THESE SHADOW BOXES MYSELF.
I USED BRAND NEW CARD CASES THAT DO NOT HAVE ANY SCRATCHES (EXCEPT FOR THE ENCASED CARDS IN THIS AUCTION).
I USED A 2 LAYER VELCRO TAB SYSTEM TO ADHERE EACH ITEM TO THE BACKING. (ed note: I was able to take the velcro off the Gibson auto card without too much trouble or any damage to anything, and stuck it on the the refractor I swapped in.)
THIS CREATES A FLOATING EFFECT FOR EACH ITEM.
THEY WILL NEVER PEEL OFF OVER TIME.
THE BACKING WAS CUSTOM ORDERED FROM A FRAME SHOP WHICH HAS A TEXTURED FINISH.
THE FRAME INSIDE IS AN 8X10, BUT, THE ACTUAL FRAME ITSELF IS 9X11.
I CLEANED THE GLASS FROM BOTH SIDES.
EACH PIECE IS READY TO HANG.

Oh, and here's an attempt to show you the glory of the refractor, though it kinda turned out terrifying.

Kirk Gibson is being attacked by flying rainbow banshees! Save him!